Staff MemberPremium Member

Here's an interesting bit of trivia for this fine Monday morning. Apparently, the Google Nexus 6 almost had a fingerprint sensor on its back. Supposedly, that dimpled spot where Motorola put their logo was going to be the designated spot for it.

The reason it never showed up in the device is also another tantalizing tidbit of trivia. Apple stopped it from happening, although only indirectly. It turns out that Motorola had been working with a company called AuthenTec since 2011 to develop a fingerprint sensor tech for mobile devices.

AuthenTec was and is at the cutting edge of mobile fingerprint sensor technology, and all of their competitors are basically a generation or more behind. If you follow Apple news at all, you might recognize that name. Alternatively, if use your Sherlock Holmesian deductive logic you can come up with the same result. That's the same company that Apple purchased in 2012 for $356 Million and ended up using their fingerprint tech exclusively in the iPhone 5S.

It seems that not only was the purchase a way to offer new technology to iPhone users, it was also an indirect way to block anyone else from getting the tech for their phones. Interestingly, the Nexus 6 firmware files show that built-in support for the fingerprint sensor was already in the Nexus 6, but was removed at the last minute.

Former Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside shared that he thinks it would not have made that big of a difference for Motorola devices either way. What do you think?

I set up my Moto 360 to be a trusted bluetooth device. If my phone is with me, I don't have to deal with pinc odes and stuff anymore either. As for passwords, I prefer to put them in myself. I still manage to remember the onslaught of different passwords I use.

I thought it was pretty gimmicky when first unveiled but I'll admit it's pretty much as advertised. My wife has a 6+ and to me it's virtually see-through. Once you set it up it does just what it's supposed to do and you don't even notice it.

Staff Member

It's not a gimmick. TouchID is pretty awesome. No more pincodes or passwords unless you power the device off. Apple nailed this when they purchased AuthenTec.

I'm looking forward to it being baked directly into the screen. Apple and Samsung have patents for it so I hope we see it soon.

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I completely agree. It's not a gimmick in the slightest. TouchID works exceptionally well, and is one of the most impressive additions to the iPhone in years. Apple deserves credit where credit is due here with their acquisition of AuthenTec and the way they've implemented the fingerprint scanner.

I would love to have a fingerprint scanner in an Android device that works as well as TouchID. The one on the Note 4 works well enough, but it's not as straightforward and reliable as TouchID.

Didn't know that. Thats actually huge. I'm in Central California and 700Mhz will eventually come to my area. I know Modesto CA got turned on for 100Mb LTE and while driving through there (about 15 mins from were I live) I was getting about 70Mb down and 40Mb up. Very impressive speeds. If that expands south towards where I live I'll be stoked.